injury. A superintendent of a factory, although having power to employ men or represent the master in other respects, is in the management of the machinery a fellow-servant of the other operatives. * * * The liability is thus made to depend upon the character of the act in the performance of which the injury arises, without regard to the rank of the employe performing it. If it is one pertaining to the duty that the master owes to his servants he is responsible to them for the manner of its performance. The converse of the proposition necessarily follows: If the act is one which pertains to the duty of an operative, the employe performing it is a mere servant; and the master, although liable to strangers, is not liable to a fellow-servant for its improper performance.” To same effect are Lindvall v. Woods, (Minn.) 42 N. W. Rep. 1020; Davis v. Railroad Co., 55 Vt. 84; State v. Malstar, 57 Md. 287; Car Co. v. Parker, 100 Ind. 191; Hussey v. Coger, 112 N. Y. 614, 20 N. E. Rep. 556; Copper v. Railroad Co., (Ind.) 2 N. E. Rep. 749; Yates v. Iron Co., (Md.) 16 Atl. Rep. 280; Elevator Co. v. Neal, 65 Md. 438. 5 Atl. Rep. 338; McGovern v. Manufacturing Co., (Ga.) 5 S. E. Rep. 492; Lewis v. Seifert, (Pa.) 11 Atl. Rep. 514; Olson v. Railroad Co., (Minn.) 35 N. W. Rep. 866; Anderson v. Winston, 31 Fed. Rep. 528; Webb v. Railroad Co., (N. C.) 2S. E. Rep. 440.
This list might be added to, but we are concerned not so much about the number of cases to be cited in support of our views as about the soundness of our position upon principle. We believe that the fellow-servant rule should hedge about all masters without discrimination; that its wise and just barrier against liability should not be broken down by a fiction; that those whose business, from its very nature, necessitates gradations of service should not be deprived of its protection on account of a distiction which in no manner affects the considerations which gave it birth, and have led to its almost universal adoption. We see nothing to justify the limitation doctrine, except the increased safety of employes in a dangerous business; and this applies, if at all, equally to cases where the two servants are of the same grade. But, so far from augmenting their safety, the liability of the master will have the contrary effect, if it produces any effect at all. That servant will grow more careless, who in-
